DUSTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER issue number 13, APRIL 2021 (DLHS newsletters are now one year old !) WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY EASTER 2021 THERE WAS A WINDMILL IN DUSTON – PROBABLY (suggests David Carter) In the Northampton Mercury newspaper of 11 July 1789 an advert appeared… To be SOLD by AUCTION by ARTHUR BROWNSGRAVE* On Thursday next the 16th instant, at the “Robin Hood - and - Little John” in St James’s End, near Northampton, A Good Compact WIND-MILL, standing on DUSTON HEATH, in a good Place for the Business. The Sale to begin at Ten o’clock. Duston's post windmill may have looked like this mill at Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire. The picture was taken just before its demolition. *Was Arthur Brownsgrave the auctioneer, or the owner of the windmill? On maps of Duston Parish in the 1720s, “Duston Heath” was the land next to Sandy Lane, and across to the stone quarries near Harlestone Road and towards Harlestone Village and the (more recent) Harlestone Firs. The land we now call “Lodge Farm” was part of the Heath and was on the opposite side of the A428 – Moor Lane/Coventry Road. (The blue dot on my map (right) of the Duston Parish fields in the 1720s marks the site of “Round Hill”). Three months after the advert appeared, a similar, but more detailed advert was published. 24 October 1789. A WIND-MILL To be SOLD, a WINDMILL well situated for Business, in DUSTON-FIELD, near Northampton, between Dallington and Harlestone, and adjoining the Dunchurch Turnpike Road. The Mill hath been fitted up only a few Months, by the late Proprietor, Mr John Willson, deceased, and is in complete Repair. For further Particulars, enquire of Mr Markham, Attorney, in Northampton. (OS map: 1830s) DLHS Newsletter April 2021 P a g e | 1 Duston Field was the area of Duston Parish on the “wrong” side of Harlestone Road. The land we know today as Lodge Farm. (Not to be confused with the Duston Lodge Farm on Bants Lane). So, the windmill may have been somewhere on the land from the (later) Hare and Hounds Inn to the stream and higher ground where today’s Ryehill estate stands. But, windmills work best on higher ground, so perhaps our windmill wasn’t on Duston Field. The windmill was probably of the POST type, without wooden or stone tower. I haven’t found the windmill to be shown on any maps from that period, but – on the 1720s Duston Estate Map - one small piece of land (on the site of the Airflow Streamlines car showrooms) was known as “Round Hill.” It was NOT on the other side of Harlestone Road, on Duston Field, but would have been a good place for a windmill. On higher ground, in a position to catch the breezes. Probably – not “possibly” – there was a windmill somewhere in the “Heath” area of the parish. But exactly where? Since David posted this article on his "Memories of Duston Past" Facebook page, he has received information about many windmills in the County. It appears that there was a "Dallington Mill" at SP 718638, which is in the Dallington Parish part of Harlestone Firs - near (today's) Lodge Farm and Harlestone Manor. We need to avoid confusion with Dallington's watermill, which was on Spencer Bridge Road, near Victoria Park. AS IT WAS - THE SILK FACTORY - MARGARET EDWARDS I was fascinated to read Kathy’s account of child labour during the Industrial Revolution in our recent News Letters (Issues 11 & 12 February & March 2021). This brought to mind a book, The Silk Factory, I read a while ago. It is written by Judith Allnatt, set in her home village of Weedon, and is based around a silk factory in the village which operated there at the beginning of the 19th Century. This massive three storey building was converted to houses and eventually pulled down in the 1960s. Modern houses have now been built on the site Another building, central to the story, is The Depot, built between 1804 and 1816. This was a Military Garrison, essentially for the storage of arms and ammunition; established when there was a real fear of an invasion by Napoleon, being far from the coast and close to canals and good roads. The Depot survives and is open to visitors. The Novel itself is set in two different time zones with two cleverly interwoven stories of two families: DLHS Newsletter April 2021 P a g e | 2 1. Set in 1812 to 1822 around a family of two young siblings a brother and sister, with an elder sister who acts as their Carer after the death of their Mother and Father. In order to survive the two young children work at the Silk Factory 2. Set in Modern Times a young family of a Mother and two young children move to Weedon from London after the breakup of her marriage. They live in one of the houses built on the site of the original Silk Factory, inherited on the recent death of her Mother. She has financial problems as well as difficulties with her ex- husband and his new partner At the root of both timelines is the reality of ordinary life; enduring harsh treatment; a struggle for survival; the reality of the haves and have-nots. Although the families never meet they are linked by the events and mysteries of the Silk Factory. And there is a final twist at the end bringing the whole tale to a traumatic and perfect conclusion. To give you an idea of Judith Allnatt’s approach to this novel I can do no better than quote her account in her blog online: THE SILK FACTORY – GHOSTS AND HISTORY Feeding the Silkworms “In the Northamptonshire village where I live, a friend reported odd sounds in her house and a wholly unexplained smell of soot. I wondered what the site had been used for in the past and found out that it was a silk factory during the industrial revolution. The eerie oddity started me thinking about the ghostly and about buildings as the holders of many generations’ secrets I began to read about the process of making silk: ideas as weird as wafting coal embers above the beds of silk worms during a thunderstorm in order to keep them alive, the practice of ‘kissing the shuttle’ –threading it with your mouth – that spread disease like wildfire through the work force, and nineteenth century children forced to work such long hours that, too exhausted to walk home, they hid themselves in storerooms to sleep. I discovered that the local silk master had been hated for his cruelty and was described, intriguingly, as having ‘a seafaring and weather-beaten appearance with many wounds upon his head’. With this my character, Septimus Fowler was born … Another section from her Blog concerns the local Garrison, mentioned above, and its possible purpose: … HANG UP MEN LIKE SCARECROWS?” Still dominating the skyline above the village is a huge Georgian garrison. Locally, It’s reputed to have been built as a colossal retreat for George III, should Napoleon invade , but my research suggested otherwise. In the centre of the midlands, an area where textile workers were starving and turning to violence and rebellion, blast houses full of gunpowder and barracks full of soldiers had quite a different purpose – to quell insurrection. Writing ‘on location’ in the shadow of the huge buildings of the garrison, helped me to capture the sense of the might and authority of the establishment over the populace The Frame Breaking Act 1812 made it a capital offence to damage an employer’s looms, yet poverty was so extreme that the crime was almost commonplace. Byron, prompted by pity for the weavers, spoke in parliament against the DLHS Newsletter April 2021 P a g e | 3 bill saying ’Can you commit a whole country to their own prisons? Will you erect a gibbet in every field and hang up men like scarecrows?’ For me his anger over the exploitation of the many by the few has a resonance today. Finally the story begins to take shape: What events might have taken place at the silk factory and what spirits might haunt it? Two stories – of a modern heroine, Rosie, who witnesses the appearance of a strange lost child, and of a silk-weaving family living in desperate times – began to thread together in my mind, like bright tight-woven ribbons So we have a book written by a local author about, a local area (not quite Duston but pretty close to us), based on historical facts and surviving buildings, beautifully written with an engaging plot. There is more. Weedon Parish Council has produced a leaflet outlining a walk around the village entitled ‘The Silk Factory’ which …takes you around the village to areas and buildings mentioned in the novel, some of which still exist…’ DLHS news lwtter A link is attached - or if you go onto Weedon Parish Council site www.weedonbec–village.co.uk silk-factory walk-.pdf and click maps you can download a copy to use on the walk. I have a copy of the book if anyone would like to borrow it. (Margaret) Judithallnatt.com - Official Author Website FEATURE ARTICLES CHILD LABOUR Part III - BARBARA LUKE Young children boys and girls from the age of 5 continued to be employed underground in mines after the 1833 Factories Act. This was to change as a result of an accident in the summer of 4th July 1838. In South Yorkshire at the Huskar Pit, Silkstone Common, near Barnsley, it was a hot summer’s day, and 33 men and 50 children were working 300 ft below ground.